Daguet: 57-year-old French leather goods house liquidated as the sector dies in silence

Daguet was founded in 1969 in Saint-Junien, Haute-Vienne, a town whose name was built on leather — the "cité du cuir" opened there in 2025. The house made handbags, belts and small leather goods, sold through its own workshop shop and via subcontracting for other brands, with 12 employees.

The business had been in financial difficulty since 2017, but the end came fast: a year and a half before the liquidation, Daguet lost a major subcontracting client, and March 2026 sales (shop plus internet) ran at a third of the previous year's. Manager Pierre Cavalier described a cash wall the company could not cross, with no bank support this time: "The image of the big leather goods houses doing very well hides the forest of small manufacturers who are suffering today."

The tribunal de commerce de Limoges pronounced liquidation judiciaire on 1 April 2026; the workshop closed definitively on 11 April after a clearance sale that drew crowds — one Tuesday's takings equalled a December month. All 12 employees lost their jobs.

Cavalier's reading of the wider failure: made-in-France leather goods is a sector that dies in silence — French consumers' first choice is discount retail, production costs in France are high next to other EU countries, and one subcontractor client told him it would itself file for bankruptcy the following week. In June 2026, the Normandy textile group Lécuyer (technical ribbons and straps) took over the company and may rehire staff.